The Other Duke Read Online Free PDF Page A

hesitate, but gripped the reins without argument. She watched as he climbed down and approached the skittish mare on his side of the carriage with gentle words.
    “Steady, steady, Moonfire. What spooked you?” he asked, running his hands up her side.
    The animal stiffened and sidestepped slightly as his hand approached her bridle. Carefully, he slid his fingers beneath the woven bridle and drew his hand back in surprise. There was a broken piece of metal there. He extracted it from its place digging into Moonfire’s flesh and drew it out to stare at it in disbelief.
    “The poor animal!” Serafina gasped as he held it up to the light. “Is she injured?”
    He felt beneath the bridle again, but this time the horse didn’t skirt away. When he withdrew his fingers, he saw no blood and shook his head.
    “She doesn’t appear to be hurt,” he said and moved around to examine the other horse, Sunbeam. But there was nothing to find beneath her bridle and she only kept a worried eye on the other horse rather than react to his touch.
    He put the shard in his pocket and shook his head as he returned to his driver’s seat.
    “I’ll have to show this to my stable master,” he said. “And have my equipment inspected.”
    Serafina surrendered the reins to him and drooped against the seat momentarily. “That was certainly an unexpected beginning to our ride.”
    Rafe nickered at the animals and the horses began to move, this time with no dramatics. “This entire outing is unexpected,” he said with a laugh.
    He maneuvered the vehicle onto the street and toward the park just a short ride away. It wasn’t until he turned through the huge gate marking the park that he spoke again.
    “All right, Serafina McPhee, tell me—what are you up to?”
     

     
    Serafina shifted slightly at both the direct question Rafe asked her and the pointed stare with which he snagged her. She had made this plan the night before with great relish, but now it was…more difficult.
    “I—” she began, then stopped herself to draw in a deep, calming breath. “Since we very nearly died a similar death as your cousin together, I feel I must be honest with you. I do not wish to marry you.”
    His eyebrows lifted and he shook his head. “You wound me.”
    The flat affectation of his tone and the dancing expression in his eyes told Serafina that he was teasing her. It was odd how that easy interaction made her stomach flutter and her cheeks heat. Rafe Flynn was certainly an exasperating man.
    “Please don’t play, I’m being very serious,” she said, folding her arms and looking away from him. It was easier to think and breathe when she did so.
    “I realize that,” he said.
    “And I don’t believe you wish to marry me either.” She glanced at him again and could see he was struggling with a gentlemanly way to affirm her assertion. “You don’t have to say it. It doesn’t really matter anyway.”
    “No?” he asked. “You don’t think it could all be changed?”
    She shook her head at his repeated belief that things would work out for him. It must have been a remarkable life he led before Cyril ruined everything for him. She almost felt sorry for the man.
    “We will be forced to do so. Certainly you must have read over the contracts.”
    He turned the phaeton down a little-used lane and parked it so that they looked out over the lake. Once he had secured them, he turned to face her.
    “I did. As did my solicitor and, perhaps most importantly, my sister Annabelle. Your father is quite thorough.”
    Serafina tilted her head, taken aback by his comment about his sister reading over the contracts. She had never heard of a man with such wealth and power giving anything over to a female relative, but apparently he trusted this Annabelle a great deal.
    She shook her head to clear those thoughts. “With Cyril, there was something he wanted—money—and something my father wanted, a closer connection to the power of the title Hartholm. But